Title

The Artist Venny Soldan-Brofeldt | Hanna Pauli

The Artist Venny Soldan-Brofeldt

Description

Hanna Pauli’s portrait of her artist friend Venny Soldan-Brofeldt, painted in their common studio in Montparnasse in Paris 1886–1887, has in recent decades become a classic of Swedish art history. Pauli has depicted the model sitting on the floor leaning forward with outstretched legs. The woman looks up at us with half-open mouth. To depict a woman sitting in this relaxed manner was bold for its time; it was considered improper for bourgeois women to dress and behave like this. Pauli portrays a woman free from the duties of the bourgeois ideal. The libertarian ideal is reflected in the easy, naturalistic style of painting.